Ixii INTEODUCTIOX. 



sea : tlie one is a large saline flat, situated a little nortli of 

 the Mexican bonndary line, wMch is usually called Soda 

 Lake. It is about 70 feet below tide-water, and althougli 

 nearly always perfectly dry, a long dyke, known as Hardy's 

 Colorado or New Eiver, flows through the desert towards it 

 when the Great Colorado is flooded. Leaving the latter 

 stream about half-way between Fort Yuma and its mouth, it 

 receives the back-water of the Colorado, flows northward 

 across the boundary line, and becomes lost in the desert 

 before reaching Soda Lake, If it had suflieient volume, this 

 large depression would become filled with fresh water a 

 very desirable result. 



The most wonderful depression, however, is Death Yalley, 



the sink of the Amargoza, which is 175 feet below the sea. 

 Although this depression is an arid desert, an enormous area 

 of country drains into it, extending from lat. 37^ to the San 

 Bamardino Mountains, from which the Mojave Eiver rises, 

 and comprising not less than 30,000 square miles. At fii's* 

 sight it might appear that the existence of these depression* 

 rather contradicted what I have said as to the causes wlucu 

 liavc produced the liydrographic peculiarities of tliis ^^Basi^ 

 Ee^ion," But a fd^nee at the Colorado Basin at onec, 1 

 think, decides the question. Let us suppose that a hunu 

 climate had poured abundant rains upon the table-land, 1,^ 

 feet high, which separates Death Yalley from the low lands 

 at the head of the Gulf. A fine sheet of water would cover 

 Death Yalley, and this lake would have had an outlet to the 

 sea thi-ough the opposing table-land. If 7,000 feet of table- 

 land yielded to the waters of the Eio Colorado, surely 1,0^ 

 feet of similar formation would not prevent the overflow o 

 large lake from reaching the coast. 



Great Salt Lake, the largest in the Great Basin, is a^^^ 



^ 



